Focus turns from saving to documenting sinking cemeteries

Published: Saturday, January 12, 2013 at 7:50 p.m.

Last Modified: Saturday, January 12, 2013 at 7:50 p.m.

Lurching oaks used to cast shade on the Crosby Cemetery just off La. 1 between Golden Meadow and Leeville. The small family cemetery was once surrounded by orchards, fertile fields and busy neighbors.

Today, a layer of slippery black mud encroaches on broken headstones strewn across the ground.

The cemetery is surrounded by a chain-link fence which has debris from some previous storm pancaked against the southern edge. Past that, nothing but water and marsh grass remain.

The creeping coastal erosion will inevitably claim the cemetery and its dead, plunging both into the fast approaching Bayou Lafourche.

Crosby is one of a handful of local cemeteries either threatened or already claimed by coastal erosion and the sinking local land.

“This is the last vestiges of the community that was once here,” said South Lafourche Levee District General Manager Windell Curole, whose great-grandmother is buried in Crosby Cemetery. “The houses have been taken by hurricanes and such, but now even the graves are being lost.”

All that remain of some graves are the broken brick tombs that peek from the marsh. In others, locals have taken to covering the graveyards with concrete to prevent castaway caskets from floating away.

“That is the way life is I guess. In the old days, they used to make all their livings off the water. Today everything is sinking, and they will be part of the Gulf one day,” said Ivy Bouzigard, a resident of Golden Meadow whose great-grandfather is buried in Crosby Cemetery.

“You think about it a lot, but there is not really anything you can do about it,” he said.

Lafourche has about seven cemeteries below the levee in Golden Meadow. Most graves date back to the late 1800s or early 1900s, according to Paul Chiquet, South Lafourche Library's administrator.

The library holds a wealth of information about the cemeteries, mostly family plots that contain a dozen or fewer dead.

The largest is the Cheniere Caminada Cemetery near Grand Isle.

The hurricane of 1893 eradicated the community of Cheniere Caminada. The cemetery there contains a mass grave, the final resting place of the 700 or so people killed by the storm.

The cemetery is in relatively good shape, with patches of wet creeping in from the surrounding marshes.

“Some of them are in the marsh, but it's still there. The water will encroach it soon,” Chiquet said.

Some cemeteries in Terrebonne Parish face similar threats, according to Lucretia McBride, the parish's former cemetery administrator and current advocate for grave preservation.

“You have some that are already in the marsh, but you also have some that are just impacted by floods,” McBride said.

The Isle De Jean Charles Cemetery has seen more than its fair-share of flooding during tidal surges, according to Albert Naquin, chief of the Isle De Jean Charles Band of the Biloxi-Chitmacha Confederation of Muskogees.

Naquin estimates the remains of about 150 people are buried in the cemetery, but only three markers remain. The others were washed away by floodwaters.

“The bayou nearby used to be 15 feet at its widest, now it is about 30 feet,” Naquin said. “We have a feeling that some of the bodies and remains might be along the edge of the bayou.”

Most agree there is little that can be done to stem the unrelenting encroachment of open water into marsh, but some aim to preserve the memory of the dead by recording these disappearing cemeteries.

So far she's mapped 43 sites in 13 of the 16 coastal parishes. The goal is to map the perimeters of these cemeteries and collect information about those buried there.

“I'm trying to collect them for historical documentation,” Schexnayder said. “When the Gulf takes them, they are gone. There is no real way to save these sites. It's my wholehearted mission to collect the information for historical documentation.”

Schexnayder said all coastal parishes face similar problems as sea levels rise and the land continues to sink.

“Eventually we plan to build a database for coastal cemeteries,” Schexnayder said.

Chiquet said the South Lafourche Library hosts a wealth of information about those buried in Leeville. The late genealogist Bob Looper created a database of those buried in Leeville as part of his genealogy work.

“We have databases that have all the families from Thibodaux and south Lafourche going back to the German and French roots,” Chiquet said.

Those databases are searchable at libraries in South Lafourche, Lockport and Thibodaux.

Terrebonne Parish has also mapped local cemeteries, according to Tom Bourg, utilities director.

Chiquet said the younger generation should have worked harder to save the cemeteries.

“The younger generation is not putting the effort in to try to save what is left,” Chiquet said suggesting a bulkhead could protect many of the Leeville cemeteries from the widening bayou.

McBride said maintaining old cemeteries is difficult, especially given the frequent flooding in Terrebonne.

“There are often conflicts about who is legally responsible to maintain a burial,” McBride said. “Many times the owners don't want to spend the money to do the required maintenance.”

There is hope, however, for the Isle De Jean Charles Cemetery. Naquin said flood-protection improvements helped slow the current in the nearby bayou and future improvements to the levee could further protect the cemetery.

Leeville is outside Lafourche's levee system and most agree there is little that can be done to stop the cemetery from washing away.

“Leeville was full of orchards and fields,” Curole said. “There were huge trees and more than 200 houses here once.”

<p>Lurching oaks used to cast shade on the Crosby Cemetery just off La. 1 between Golden Meadow and Leeville. The small family cemetery was once surrounded by orchards, fertile fields and busy neighbors. </p><p>Today, a layer of slippery black mud encroaches on broken headstones strewn across the ground.</p><p>The cemetery is surrounded by a chain-link fence which has debris from some previous storm pancaked against the southern edge. Past that, nothing but water and marsh grass remain.</p><p>The creeping coastal erosion will inevitably claim the cemetery and its dead, plunging both into the fast approaching Bayou Lafourche. </p><p>Crosby is one of a handful of local cemeteries either threatened or already claimed by coastal erosion and the sinking local land.</p><p>“This is the last vestiges of the community that was once here,” said South Lafourche Levee District General Manager Windell Curole, whose great-grandmother is buried in Crosby Cemetery. “The houses have been taken by hurricanes and such, but now even the graves are being lost.”</p><p>All that remain of some graves are the broken brick tombs that peek from the marsh. In others, locals have taken to covering the graveyards with concrete to prevent castaway caskets from floating away.</p><p>“That is the way life is I guess. In the old days, they used to make all their livings off the water. Today everything is sinking, and they will be part of the Gulf one day,” said Ivy Bouzigard, a resident of Golden Meadow whose great-grandfather is buried in Crosby Cemetery. </p><p>“You think about it a lot, but there is not really anything you can do about it,” he said.</p><p>Lafourche has about seven cemeteries below the levee in Golden Meadow. Most graves date back to the late 1800s or early 1900s, according to Paul Chiquet, South Lafourche Library's administrator.</p><p>The library holds a wealth of information about the cemeteries, mostly family plots that contain a dozen or fewer dead. </p><p>The largest is the Cheniere Caminada Cemetery near Grand Isle. </p><p>The hurricane of 1893 eradicated the community of Cheniere Caminada. The cemetery there contains a mass grave, the final resting place of the 700 or so people killed by the storm. </p><p>The cemetery is in relatively good shape, with patches of wet creeping in from the surrounding marshes.</p><p>“Some of them are in the marsh, but it's still there. The water will encroach it soon,” Chiquet said.</p><p>Some cemeteries in Terrebonne Parish face similar threats, according to Lucretia McBride, the parish's former cemetery administrator and current advocate for grave preservation.</p><p>“You have some that are already in the marsh, but you also have some that are just impacted by floods,” McBride said. </p><p>The Isle De Jean Charles Cemetery has seen more than its fair-share of flooding during tidal surges, according to Albert Naquin, chief of the Isle De Jean Charles Band of the Biloxi-Chitmacha Confederation of Muskogees.</p><p>Naquin estimates the remains of about 150 people are buried in the cemetery, but only three markers remain. The others were washed away by floodwaters. </p><p>“The bayou nearby used to be 15 feet at its widest, now it is about 30 feet,” Naquin said. “We have a feeling that some of the bodies and remains might be along the edge of the bayou.”</p><p>Most agree there is little that can be done to stem the unrelenting encroachment of open water into marsh, but some aim to preserve the memory of the dead by recording these disappearing cemeteries.</p><p>Jessica Schexnayder, administrative coordinator at Louisiana Sea Grant, is documenting cemeteries threatened by coastal erosion. </p><p>So far she's mapped 43 sites in 13 of the 16 coastal parishes. The goal is to map the perimeters of these cemeteries and collect information about those buried there. </p><p>“I'm trying to collect them for historical documentation,” Schexnayder said. “When the Gulf takes them, they are gone. There is no real way to save these sites. It's my wholehearted mission to collect the information for historical documentation.”</p><p>Schexnayder said all coastal parishes face similar problems as sea levels rise and the land continues to sink. </p><p>“Eventually we plan to build a database for coastal cemeteries,” Schexnayder said. </p><p>Chiquet said the South Lafourche Library hosts a wealth of information about those buried in Leeville. The late genealogist Bob Looper created a database of those buried in Leeville as part of his genealogy work.</p><p>“We have databases that have all the families from Thibodaux and south Lafourche going back to the German and French roots,” Chiquet said. </p><p>Those databases are searchable at libraries in South Lafourche, Lockport and Thibodaux. </p><p>Terrebonne Parish has also mapped local cemeteries, according to Tom Bourg, utilities director. </p><p>Chiquet said the younger generation should have worked harder to save the cemeteries.</p><p>“The younger generation is not putting the effort in to try to save what is left,” Chiquet said suggesting a bulkhead could protect many of the Leeville cemeteries from the widening bayou.</p><p>McBride said maintaining old cemeteries is difficult, especially given the frequent flooding in Terrebonne.</p><p>“There are often conflicts about who is legally responsible to maintain a burial,” McBride said. “Many times the owners don't want to spend the money to do the required maintenance.”</p><p>There is hope, however, for the Isle De Jean Charles Cemetery. Naquin said flood-protection improvements helped slow the current in the nearby bayou and future improvements to the levee could further protect the cemetery. </p><p>Leeville is outside Lafourche's levee system and most agree there is little that can be done to stop the cemetery from washing away.</p><p>“Leeville was full of orchards and fields,” Curole said. “There were huge trees and more than 200 houses here once.” </p><p>Saltwater intrusion killed any substantial plant life, leaving behind marsh, fishing sheds, gas stations and a handful of homes. </p><p>“There is a sadness about how you live and you die, but there is an even greater sadness about losing a whole community,” Curole said.</p>